Woman who stowed away on NY flight to Paris arrested, will face judge

Svetlana Dali was able to get through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at JFK Airport, and dodge document and ID checks during the security process.

Aviation experts are trying to determine how a stowaway made it all the way to Paris on a flight that left New York last week.

Svetlana Dali, a 57-year-old Russian national, snuck onto a Delta Air Lines flight at New York’s JFK International Airport without a boarding pass on Nov. 26 and flew all the way to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, apparently concealing herself by spending long chunks of time in the plane’s multiple bathrooms.

Police boarded the plane at the Paris airport upon touchdown, according to a video from a passenger that was shared on social media. “This is the captain. We’re just waiting for the police to come on board,” the pilot can be heard saying.

Dali was detained when authorities discovered she didn’t have a valid visa to enter the country, French National Police said in a statement last week.

On Wednesday, Dec. 4, she was deported to the U.S. and arrested by the FBI. The charges against her have not yet been made public and she is scheduled to appear in Brooklyn federal court Thursday afternoon.

Two previous attempts to deport Dali were unsuccessful. ABC7 News in New York reports she “started screaming” after boarding a plane on Nov. 30. Fox News reports a similar scene played out on Dec. 3, and she was removed from that flight, too, after she began screaming, “Please help me. I don’t want to go to the United States.”

Last week, it emerged Dali was able to get through an advanced imaging technology body scanner at JFK airport, and dodge document and ID checks during the security process.

A TSA spokesperson told CBS News in a statement that “an individual without a boarding pass was physically screened without any prohibited items. The individual bypassed two identity verification and boarding status stations and boarded the aircraft.”